Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00There is a connection between
00:00:02Trump's interests and this
00:00:04project.
00:00:12But it is clear to me from
00:00:17I'm sorry, this is perhaps too long an answer to the report that, based on previous policy,
00:00:21this is a major
00:00:22deviation.
00:00:26The USA has been for some time.
00:00:30supported this project and
00:00:33that it was initially
00:00:37supposed to be part of the Adriatic
00:00:40gas pipeline, but it wasn't,
00:00:43so
00:00:47to move away from all of that to a company
00:00:50that was founded immediately
00:00:53after the adoption of the amendments to the
00:00:57gas pipeline law.
00:01:01that this project be given to a company
00:01:04that has absolutely no experience in that
00:01:07area, then we have truly moved far away from what
00:01:11was initially agreed and
00:01:24we heard during the debate in the previous
00:01:27days is something that is... also very serious and
00:01:31to many it was unimaginable to say in the American
00:01:35Congress until recently, that is the possibility of Bosnia and
00:01:38Herzegovina disintegrating, which, as it was said, is not
00:01:42out of the realm of possibility, especially
00:01:45due to the attitudes of the authorities in the entity of Republika Srpska.
00:01:49In fact, there was much talk about the end of the OHR
00:01:51as a specific goal of some
00:01:55here. The Trump administration emphasized that the conditions for
00:01:58closing the OHR have not yet been met, but still, how
00:02:02alarming is the situation in which
00:02:05the possibility of the disintegration of Bosnia and Herzegovina
00:02:09is openly mentioned in the American
00:02:11Congress?
00:02:18Definitely
00:02:20these are words that caught my attention and the attention
00:02:24of the chairman. So,
00:02:26it worries me. That was not a statement
00:02:30of the administration, but
00:02:34it is clear to me and according to
00:02:36my analysis, that cannot happen without
00:02:40violence.
00:02:43There can be 100 variations of how it
00:02:46can happen, and each of them carries with
00:02:50it unwanted
00:02:51consequences.
00:02:54Most Bosnian-Herzegovinian
00:02:57citizens have not participated in any... violence for 30 years
00:03:01and
00:03:05I am really
00:03:09worried that for some members of Congress
00:03:12it is a real possibility, the way
00:03:16they say it
00:03:20and what they said, it seemed to me
00:03:24that it was something that would eventually
00:03:27follow and that we should prepare
00:03:31for such a scenario, but
00:03:34international engagement after the war in the 90s
00:03:38was aimed at
00:03:42preventing such a scenario and in the first decade after
00:03:45the war, we saw real progress, and only
00:03:4820 years later we saw how
00:03:52things
00:03:53slowly
00:03:56fall apart, or rather go backward.
00:04:00"especially since, maybe not from the very beginning
00:04:03when Dodik entered politics and took power, but
00:04:07later,
00:04:10but
00:04:15work was done on reforming the political
00:04:18economic system, but
00:04:22obviously, they don't
00:04:25see that, so now.
00:04:32um, this business
00:04:34model is a model that
00:04:38works for Americans obviously and
00:04:42for you here in Bosnia and Herzegovina
00:04:45this kind of story, constant tensions,
00:04:48because I see that with you here in this
00:04:51in this election campaign that
00:04:55nothing has
00:04:56changed,
00:05:01International efforts
00:05:04can help
00:05:07that the environment here might become a little
00:05:10better and more mature, but they cannot solve absolutely
00:05:13all problems, but I see, of course, that the current
00:05:17administration wants to extract its own benefit from this
00:05:20situation here in the country. I think
00:05:24I am not the only one who thinks so.
00:05:50very strange now how the roles
00:05:54have changed in the sense that here in
00:05:57America
00:06:01-
00:06:04we had people who constantly
00:06:07advocated for military
00:06:10deterrence and
00:06:13eventually
00:06:15troops that would participate in
00:06:17deterrence, and in recent years, it has not
00:06:21even been mentioned, and the European
00:06:23Union
00:06:27says, no, maybe we
00:06:29really
00:06:32need that leverage that Americans are now
00:06:36pulling. Mm,
00:06:39because that is something that must change between
00:06:42Europe as an actor and America and here in this
00:06:46region, the way things are now viewed and done in this
00:06:49area. It will be interesting to follow everything
00:06:53that will happen when it comes to the agreement related to
00:06:56the OHR in that context, there were
00:06:59questions in Congress why the next
00:07:03High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina should not be
00:07:05an American. The Trump administration does not
00:07:08rule out that possibility, but says it will not prejudge the decision.
00:07:12How likely would
00:07:15that possibility be for Washington to try to go in that direction?
00:07:18Washington pokuša ići u tom pravcu.
00:07:30The chairman raised that question
00:07:32himself. To be
00:07:35honest,
00:07:38my colleagues and I advocated for it a decade ago.
00:07:42However, under the current circumstances, I would not want
00:07:46to see that happen, for the High Representative to be
00:07:49an American,
00:07:50given
00:07:53that this administration would do
00:07:56it for
00:08:00certain reasons that I do not support,
00:08:02but
00:08:05Mr. Lawton did not
00:08:08express confidence
00:08:11that they would
00:08:13currently
00:08:16fight for that position, they had an Italian
00:08:19candidate they wanted to
00:08:22support, that was a
00:08:25diplomat from
00:08:28Italy,
00:08:31and Louis Krysak is now
00:08:35acting, so actually
00:08:38we have an American High Representative
00:08:42and he is only acting, but
00:08:46it has been an open question since May, when it was first
00:08:49raised,
00:08:56it worries me
00:08:59that the Americans wanted to remove Schmidt
00:09:03from BiH as soon as possible,
00:09:05even though in the first years and most of his
00:09:08mandate he cooperated well with the Americans.
00:09:13"We criticized
00:09:16him for some things, among
00:09:20others, the election law
00:09:23in 2023. But we also stood by him, that is a strategic
00:09:27decision, but I don't hear
00:09:30enough right now about what the role
00:09:33of the OHR is in helping
00:09:37Bosnia and Herzegovina to truly
00:09:40become a self- sustainable democratic
00:09:44state without international instruments,
00:09:48and that should be the goal that we all
00:09:51strive for, I don't want
00:09:53local solutions for
00:09:57local problems,
00:09:59probleme,
00:10:03where it will be signed, this is mine, this is yours,
00:10:06here is where we draw the line,
00:10:10some people think that is
00:10:13enough, in principle, yes, maybe, but in
00:10:17practice it can be a nightmare.
00:10:18mora.
00:10:22And that is. The question
00:10:26which
00:10:29is crucial for the election and how to elect the next High
00:10:33Representative and what that
00:10:36person must do after taking
00:10:40office. As much as in recent
00:10:43times, in recent months there has been talk of a new High
00:10:46Representative, so much has also been said about
00:10:49the possibility of closing the OHR. If that happens
00:10:53before the fulfillment of the conditions you mentioned, 5+2, what
00:10:57will actually be the American instrument here in Bosnia and Herzegovina
00:11:00if things go
00:11:02wrong.
00:11:08I don't think the Americans can first unilaterally close
00:11:12the OHR even if they want to.
00:11:14But who would fill
00:11:18the empty space if they withdraw, or rather, fill
00:11:21the holes in the budget.
00:11:26And you yourself know that Dodik constantly says that
00:11:29the High Representative was illegitimate
00:11:32and how will we then
00:11:36have
00:11:38effective instruments? Those are only sanctions then, but how
00:11:42will we apply them?
00:11:44The reason why American sanctions were so important and
00:11:48number one is because the American
00:11:51role was still then in financial
00:11:55institutions, banking institutions was very
00:11:58important, especially when it comes to Dodik,
00:12:02but European instruments were never applied,
00:12:06they designed instruments that
00:12:10would, 15 years ago they
00:12:12designed instruments that would
00:12:15respond to Dodik's rhetoric,
00:12:18but Viktor Orbán
00:12:21in 2022 stopped the application
00:12:26of those instruments and I am afraid that Janez Janša would do the same
00:12:29today, as far as I know,
00:12:32uh, no one in the Council of Europe has raised
00:12:36the issue of applying sanctions, I hope they will, although
00:12:40if they do, I think Janez Janša would then
00:13:07turn to other topics that were also part
00:13:11of the hearing in Congress and which take up a lot of space in the public
00:13:15in these previous few days, that is the glorification of the convicted
00:13:19war criminal Ratko Mladić after his death
00:13:22during the funeral, which happened in Belgrade
00:13:25in Serbia, but certainly also done by a good part
00:13:29of officials here from the entity of Republika Srpska.
00:13:32In fact, there was not much talk in the American public about
00:13:36this, only a few
00:13:38representatives condemned such an act until the hearing
00:13:42in Congress, uh, then
00:13:46one of the congresswomen asked why the Trump administration
00:13:49had not publicly reacted earlier. How
00:13:53do you view the reactions
00:13:55that came from your country, should they have been
00:13:58different?
00:14:05you are absolutely
00:14:06right,
00:14:09the official response or the government's
00:14:12response to the glorification
00:14:15of Mladić came from the legislative
00:14:18side,
00:14:22even before this hearing, but not...
00:14:25from the State Department, not from the White
00:14:27House, not from any other side
00:14:30except the legislative
00:14:32side.
00:14:36Only the American embassy
00:14:39in Belgrade
00:14:41issued a travel
00:14:44advisory, they didn't even say that it was
00:14:48a convicted war criminal who was being buried
00:14:51in Belgrade, but they just said by name, Radko Mladic.
00:14:55is being buried, so avoid this and this
00:14:58area,
00:15:02but
00:15:05I am most concerned about American
00:15:09politics,
00:15:11about the fact that the Trump administration
00:15:15and Balkan nationalists, as well as
00:15:18European nationalists, that is AFD in
00:15:21Germany, have the same
00:15:25ideological direction, that is, we even
00:15:28saw and in
00:15:32the financing of the State Department of those
00:15:35certain groups, the
00:15:39lack of existence of that
00:15:42statement,
00:15:46and there was once a reward of
00:15:505 million dollars for
00:15:52the capture of Mladić and Karadžić
00:15:56in 2002, you remember
00:15:58that,
00:16:01that now that administration says nothing, that is terrible
00:16:05to me and
00:16:08that, of course, motivated
00:16:12the congresswoman to ask
00:16:14that question,
00:16:18and Mr. Lawton responded based on that
00:16:21question, that is, he
00:16:24had to respond,
00:16:28and he, as part
00:16:30of the administration, never raised that question,
00:16:34never. Former.
00:16:39Mhm, Ambassador, Mr. Murphy himself said in
00:16:43Oslobođenje that he is concerned
00:16:45about
00:16:47what kind of position
00:16:51that is, that is,
00:16:54the positions of Milorad Dodik, Čović, Vučić
00:16:57and other nationalists in Croatia and
00:17:01elsewhere are almost
00:17:04identical to.
00:17:10the worldview of the current American administration,
00:17:13that is what worries me
00:17:31military strategy,
00:17:34you heard it in Ruby's
00:17:38speech at the Munich Conference earlier this year, all the signs
00:17:42are there, they are consistent, so
00:17:46they
00:17:49did not issue any statement
00:17:52that
00:17:56they condemn the glorification
00:17:59of Mladić, perhaps because they secretly
00:18:03glorify that
00:18:05person, but silence...
00:18:15about ideology or
00:18:18the lack of ideology, some other signs about
00:18:21the attitude of the American administration towards Bosnia and Herzegovina,
00:18:25we will also look for them today, given that Ronald Johnson, Trump's candidate for
00:18:28ambassador to Bosnia and
00:18:32Herzegovina, is coming before the Senate, if confirmed, he will be the first American ambassador in Bosnia and
00:18:35Herzegovina who is not a career diplomat, he has three decades of military
00:18:39career behind him, experience in Iraq, Lebanon and other
00:18:42international missions, what do you know about him,
00:18:46which of his speeches, which of his answers will
00:18:49you pay special attention to,
00:18:53what would you like us to pay special attention to when it comes to that
00:18:57person?
00:19:03I know that he was a brigadier general in the army.
00:19:08and I know that since he left the service, he
00:19:11worked in the military
00:19:15industry, the defense industry, and
00:19:19I know, if I remember the data from
00:19:22his biography, that he has been in the defense,
00:19:26or military industry for 10 years, I
00:19:30will try to see what
00:19:33questions the members of Congress have and what answers he
00:19:36has in terms of resolving certain
00:19:39situations here,
00:19:43whether he
00:19:47would set red lines in
00:19:50terms of re- imposing
00:19:54sanctions, he would not impose them, but
00:19:56he can advise on the re-
00:20:00imposition of sanctions
00:20:03and
00:20:08I would like to see if he
00:20:11would
00:20:15focus on the defense industry here
00:20:18or not. I think he would, because
00:20:22I assume he would be interested in
00:20:25Americans participating in the defense industry here. I would
00:20:29like to see
00:20:33his program
00:20:36for this area, to hear
00:20:40and see how he would solve certain tricky
00:20:58of the average, say, American towards
00:21:01Trump's moves, especially in Iran, which most
00:21:04resulted in something sensitive and tangible,
00:21:08tangible in real life, those are the prices that almost
00:21:12the whole world pays. What would you say, what is the mood
00:21:16in America, when it comes to this issue, how much more is being said about
00:21:20foreign policy now compared to before?
00:21:33given that the election campaign is currently underway and before
00:21:36that, everyone was talking about the cost
00:21:40of living, and the cost of living has, of course,
00:21:44increased due to this
00:21:46war
00:21:49against Iran, which was
00:21:52a war of choice for the president,
00:21:56of course, we are talking about higher inflation in
00:21:59the country, about higher costs
00:22:03of living, yesterday we saw that interest
00:22:06rates increased, President
00:22:09Trump was negative about
00:22:13that, because he thinks that it will
00:22:16harm Republicans
00:22:20in the election
00:22:22in November.
00:22:32enthusiasm for voting for
00:22:36Democrats
00:22:37is growing,
00:22:40although
00:22:43Democrats are trying to win both houses, even though the
00:22:46Senate is harder to take, but
00:22:50theoretically it is possible given the
00:22:54mood of the voters
00:22:56currently, it is more possible than a few
00:23:00months ago.
00:23:09People are more interested now in foreign policy,
00:23:13of course,
00:23:15than before, regardless of the number of victims currently
00:23:19being counted. I will just mention at the end that a lot
00:23:22of what, when it comes to this Trump's, as you and many others
00:23:26call it, transactional policy, has come true from what
00:23:30you said when you, for example, last spoke with me about two
00:23:33years ago
00:29:01The European Parliament. These days debated, among other things, the
00:29:05glorification of the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić after
00:29:08he was buried with honors in
00:29:11Belgrade. From the centers of the European Union came condemnations, but
00:29:15questions are also coming about how much European institutions will actually be
00:29:18willing to turn their messages into concrete
00:29:22policy, not only towards Serbia, but also towards
00:29:25the region. What does this case say about the EU's attitude
00:29:28towards the region, towards Serbia, towards Bosnia and Herzegovina for...
00:29:32what, as many ask, there are no red
00:29:35cards, but we will talk about other topics that were discussed
00:29:38in the European Parliament in
00:30:11witnessed in previous, in previous days, we know that the European
00:30:15Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos recently canceled her visit to
00:30:19Serbia, she said that one cannot negotiate
00:30:22the dignity of victims of genocide and war crimes,
00:30:25reacting of course to scenes, and what
00:30:29interests me is how you assess
00:30:33everything we saw from
00:30:36official Belgrade and part of course
00:30:39of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, what you, what we
00:30:43had the opportunity to see as a reaction from the European
00:30:46Union, here Marta Kos and her move is, perhaps only
00:30:49the most prominent part
00:30:51of that.
00:30:54Yes, I agree with what Marta Kos said,
00:30:57certainly the glorification of someone.